Doctor Who 8.9 "Flatline" Review

                                              
A man on a phone calls the police for help as he tells them to listen.  The Doctor (Peter Capaldi) brings Clara (Jenna Coleman) home at the exact moment she left, well, exact moment-ish and realizes he can't do that.  He also works out that Danny (Sam Anderson) doesn't know she's been with him, cos really she gives herself away.  Clara points out the TARDIS door to him and notices it's smaller in size.  Climbing out of the door, or just about managing to, the TARDIS is now the size of a Wendy house (I want one of those - a TARDIS that size not a Wendy house! ha!)  Clara realizing they're in Bristol and not even close to home, but he's more interested in the size. She heads out to investigate anything from the area and comes across a mural painted on some tunnels, also a memorial where flowers have been laid and photos.

A boy who is Rigsy (Jovian wade) asks her who she's lost, as he's lost his aunt, showing her the back of her on the mural.  Returning to the TARDIS she now finds it's shrunk even further and he pokes his head through the door.  The Doctor gives her the Sonic and his psychic paper as she may need it and she remarks how she's the Doctor now.  Well she could be and would've made a good Doctor I think. She has to also carry the TARDIS in her bag (think most people have one of those miniature sized ones around!)

She meets Rigsy again who asks where she is from and who she is, saying she's a Doctor, well not really but it sounds important enough.   He takes her to the missing man's flat which has been sealed off by the police and she doesn't notice the pattern on the wall, I used pattern, but it's' not that.  Clara speaks to the Doctor and he thinks Rigsy will be good to have around for local knowledge.  Telling her not to scare him off.  She puts the TARDIS on the mantle, so that he can hear along with her and she shows him the Doctor inside, Rigsy saying it's bigger on the inside, which even the Doctor thinks about again.  Also asking if they're aliens, Clara responding the Doctor is.  Clara thinks the man may have shrunk, with the Doctor commenting he may have been squished by the police already.

Rigsy mentions something which gets the Doctor thinking and realizes they may be in the walls. Clara talks with PC Forrest (Jessica Hayles) (appropriate name, or not) about being from MI5 and that they could be in the walls, as she brings along a sledge hammer.   Erm, guessing that didn't come out of her bag! ha.  Forrest speaks on the phone in the other room and says there's something happening here, but she doesn't hear her.  Forrest is sucked through the floor.  Clara hears her scream, took her a bit long and she finds her gone.  The Doctor notices the mural on the wall is a pattern of her nervous system, as it resembles a forest, so she's in the wall.  Then the door closes and the handle vanishes, or rather becomes flat.  As things from the room start disappearing, Rigsy gets onto the chair suspended from the ceiling.  The window being an option out of the room, which the Doctor tells her to use.

Just then Danny had to call of course and she's late for their 'boring' meeting on the park bench.  She denies that she's with the Doctor and here she definitely becomes like the Doctor and lies.  Again the Doctor finding out firsthand how he sounds like all those times he has lied in his attempts to help people or to put their minds at ease.  She manages to get the chair to swing and crash through the window and will call him later.

Rigsy returns late from his lunch and one of the men is sucked into the wall, whilst their boss doesn't want to listen to her when she tells them to leave here.  Heading to an abandoned railway siding, the Doctor thinks they should try and communicate with them, cos maybe they are trying to do the same and don't realize they're hurting the humans.  Which was futile, all they get are two numbers, 55 which was the man who was sucked in, with Rigsy noticing it's the numbers on their jackets.  The next number they speak is 22.  Which is George's (Raj Bajraj) number.  Rigsy knows his way around here and tells them the only way out is in the tunnels below.  Number 22 then also is sucked through the ground.  "His number's up."

The Doctor tries to work out what's happening and we see the formulas on the board again, haven't seen that board in a while.  Funny line the Doctor calling the community service workers "pudding brains;" well they kind of were, especially their boss, who had to do everything by the book, remember the old phrase, "it was more than his job's worth."  Well he proved that over and over.  As they follow them, they have to get to the tunnels and boss manages to throw the TARDIS out of Clara's hands down onto the track below.  The Doctor tries to find a solution and comes up with a device that will make the 2D objects become 3D.

Aka Doctor Who's foray into zombies, well the way they walked and crept around was strikingly similar.  Also thought of A-Ha's Take On Me Video for the zombie like appearances and movement of the 'things.'  I liked the reversal of everything being bigger on the inside than the outside, cos it was a visual point more easily shown when he handed Clara the Sonic and other things, which popped out actual size, showing that the TARDIS was still bigger on the inside even minuscule sized. The Doctor realizing there's a train fast approaching and he's stuck on the track.  Clara tells him to do "The Addams Family;" so he knew what that was.  When he pokes his hand out of the TARDIS and walks the TARDIS to safety, but finally falling back onto the track when he thinks he's made it.   Knew that was coming and er, the Doctor knowing what she meant when she said that,       don't know if that came as a shock or not.

Anyway the device works and the door handle becomes 3D so they can open it and get through, and can reverse it back to 2D, but not for long, as the creatures have also now evolved into 3D themselves.  Clara gets a brainwave of what they need to do, as the TARDIS needs power and life support is running out inside.

She gets Rigsy to paint a mural and it's of a non existent door, she's getting energy through the wall from the creatures and is sending it to the TARDIS, which gets replenished.  The TARDIS returns to 'normal' size and enters the tunnel, he gives them a speech about them not knowing who the humans are, about harming the people but he's protecting the plane and he's sending them back to their own dimension, whatever that may be.  He's the Doctor and he uses his Sonic to send them away, calling them the "Boneless."  Well could have said spineless but they didn't have any bones, spineless would've been suited to their cowardice.

So Clara says she heard him say she did a good job as the Doctor but he won't say that now.  Even if she wants him to say it again.  She now knows what he has to do as the Doctor.  He wants Rigsy to keep painting and will be interested in knowing what he does next.  She hangs up on Danny clicking on 'I'm in a meeting' on her phone and the Doctor tells her to talk to "soldier boy."

We see Missy (Michelle Gomez) watching Clara and how she's made a good choice in her Clara.  She has "chosen well."  Yet more in of what's in store for Clara, as long as we get some ending to her backstory and who she really is.  It's been said the miniature TARDIS resembles the Pandorica, will have to compare them now.